How Beijing Hid the Smog

China can reverse its air pollution nightmare by committing to real transparency and enforcement.

By

Steven Q. Andrews

Feb. 5, 2013 11:20 a.m. ET

Last month Beijing's air quality horror show reached a nightmarish crescendo. January 2013 recorded by far the highest levels of pollution in recent years. Judging by the statistics, the smog that engulfed China's capital was as inevitable as it was apocalyptic. Though government only began reporting concentrations of harmful fine particulate pollution earlier this year, concentrations of a key precursor, nitrogen dioxide, have been significantly higher than 2008 levels for each of the past four years.